Express-Scripts plans $56 million expansion and 1,500 new jobs over five years

St. Louis is headed to the top ten in college attainment.

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A pillar of our economic development strategy is that, “We will win on today’s regional strengths in focused economic clusters. Explore in detail the four sectors that we believe will shape our region’s future.

“The Banker” … from Central Park West to Washington Avenue

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We’ve condensed a detailed three-year plan into a single paragraph we call our Strategy Statement. It’s all about priorities and direction.

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Our research team has probably answered almost any question that could be asked regarding the St. Louis region. If you can't find it in our Regional Data section, please send a note to Tim Alexander at talexander@stlregionalchamber.com.

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Inner City Capital Connections Program has come to St. Louis. To date, this program has helped 837 different businesses raise over $1.32 billion in capital and create over 11,000 jobs in the inner city. Read more about the program on our blog.

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We believe nothing is more important in St. Louis than achieving Top 10 status in college attainment among the nation's largest metros. Visit www.topteneducation.org to follow our progress.

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If your company represents growth potential for the region -- or you know of other companies that do -- we'd be pleased to help however we can. Please contact Jim Alexander at jalexander@stlregionalchamber.com

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St. Louis is home to 16 Fortune 1000 companies and some of the largest private firms in the U.S.; but don't overlook the ever increasing number of high growth small-to-medium enterprises and startups. Click here for a quick summary.

While startup activity in the St. Louis region and in the United States is rising, women and minorities consistently have lower rates of entrepreneurship. Addressing the gender and racial equity in the startup community has become a core priority for the region. To align efforts, the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective was formed. The initial Collective comprises twelve St. Louis area nonprofit and governmental organizations, including the St. Louis Regional Chamber.

The Collective is one of 12 recipients of the Kauffman Inclusion Challenge grant nationwide and will receive $420,000 over two years from the prestigious Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to help female and historically underrepresented entrepreneurs of color in high-growth sectors. The Collective will help ensure that St. Louis’ high-tech, high-growth entrepreneurial pathways are open for all to participate and benefit. “Entrepreneurship is a pathway to prosperity for all communities, but especially for communities of color and women in St. Louis who have been historically disenfranchised or underserved,” said Dr. Cheryl Watkins-Moore, head of the Inclusion Initiative for BioSTL, the organization that conceptualized and submitted the grant on behalf of the Collective. “Together, we want to help ensure there is gender and racial equity in the start-up community, which means an entrepreneur’s success cannot be predicted based on their identity.”

In awarding the Collective a grant, Kauffman signaled that the group has the potential not only to transform the way St. Louis supports underrepresented entrepreneurs, but could also serve as a model for replication in similar regions across the country. “Entrepreneurship in America should be available to everyone, yet women and minorities continue to face more obstacles to starting businesses when it comes to accessing funding, education, mentors and markets,” said Victor Hwang, vice president of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation. “The Inclusion Challenge grants will enable these outstanding support organizations to expand their services to empower more entrepreneurs and help them succeed. The nation and our economy as a whole will benefit from more entrepreneurs generating income and wealth in traditionally underserved markets.”

The importance of racial equity in policy, program design, and resource allocation – as a step beyond diversity and inclusion – became the focus of the Ferguson Commission report after the unrest in Ferguson in August 2014. The Collective is working to purposefully align its work with the report and organizations working to apply a racial equity lens in other areas of the community. This alignment provides a framework that can be used to advance gender equity and address other identity-based inequities that may exist. The Kauffman grant will help the Collective gather regional baseline data and build ongoing tracking systems, receive individual anti-bias training for ESOs, complete a needs assessment and pilot new activities.

Initial members of the Collective that have committed to a more intentional and rigorous process of building an equitable entrepreneurship ecosystem are (in alphabetical order): Arch Grants – BioSTL – Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) – Cortex – IT Entrepreneurship Network (ITEN) – Missouri Small Business Development Center – Prosper Women’s Entrepreneurs – St. Louis Economic Development Partnership – St. Louis Makes – St. Louis Regional Chamber – T-Rex – Venture Café. The Collective membership is expected to broaden and, over the course of the work, members will engage a wide range of partners working to build a robust entrepreneur start-up community in St. Louis.

We are excited to support the expansion of Centene’s headquarters in our region and the addition of new jobs to our regional economy. Below is the text of a letter I sent to Michael Neidorff today, expressing our support for their continued growth.

The Centene Corporation is a stunning example of high impact entrepreneurship and St. Louis’ leadership in cost-effective personalized medicine, the core strength of our region’s health sector. Under your leadership, we have watched Centene grow to be the 2nd largest Fortune 500 company in Missouri and the largest Medicaid Managed Care Organization in the country.

We know that now, more than ever, business decision makers have a choice where to move jobs and capital. Centene has demonstrated its commitment to our region again and again. You showed your dedication when you opened a new call center in Ferguson months early in order to bring jobs to a community in need. And you have shown it once again with plans to expand your headquarters in Clayton and bring 1,000 new high-quality, good-paying jobs to our region.

In January 2013, with the launch of our One Plan, the St. Louis Regional Chamber committed to shifting economic development to focus on helping employers and entrepreneurs grow in our region’s strongest clusters, like the health sector, through relocating their operations to St Louis, starting new companies here, and expanding existing operations We could search around the world for an employer to bring 1,000 jobs to our region, generate new construction jobs and help create a new live/work/play environment increasingly desired by the next generation. It is satisfying to find that employer right here in our backyard, and your expansion is worthy of both our full attention and public investment.

We are extremely proud of what Centene has accomplished and could not be more excited to help turn this development project into reality. We are fully committed to the expansion and the economic development incentives needed to secure these jobs for people in our community. We look forward to a long partnership and further growth for Centene.